2025/02/18 by Richard Purkiss · 2 voices
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Law, logistics, and international trade #Legal principles and applications #European and International Law Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/ehr/ceaf048
Abstract The Danelaw is commonly understood as the largest of three legal provinces in tenth- to twelfth-century England, extending from Yorkshire to Middlesex. Ninth-century settlers from Scandinavia are taken to have introduced a body of custom which contrasted with West Saxon and Mercian law. This article argues that established definitions of the Danelaw do not reflect the meaning of the original Old English term Dena lagu, and rest on unreliable texts or flawed assumptions. Dena lagu should not be interpreted as ‘Danish law’ but read literally, as ‘law of the Danes’. Establishing where it applied is therefore a matter of identifying which area was thought to be inhabited by Danes. Legal texts indicate that contemporaries recognised more than three regions with distinct laws, but that the region ascribed to the Danes lay between the rivers Welland and Tees. Dena lagu meant the law as recognised in this territory, which probably took shape in the tenth century. The eponymous Danes were a regional community described in ethnic terms, who retained some legal autonomy for political reasons. This account suggests that the conception of the Danelaw as a region defined by its distinctive customs represents a misunderstanding that arose in the Anglo-Norman period.